EcoPlanet Bamboo “suffered a fraud that led to the closing of operations” in Nicaragua. Really?

EcoPlanet Bamboo, according to the company’s website, “is leading the industrialization of bamboo as a viable and environmentally attractive alternative fiber.” The company claims to have established bamboo plantations in Nicaragua, South Africa, and Ghana.

In 2017, REDD-Monitor was told that EcoPlanet Bamboo’s operations in Ghana had been closed down because EcoPlanet Bamboo “owed too many people money”.

In November 2017, the Forest Stewardship Council certificate of EcoPlanet Bamboo’s plantations in Nicaragua lapsed.

Here’s a screenshot from EcoPlanet Bamboo’s website (taken today):

Under the FSC logo is the license code “FSC-C113478”. That’s the license code for the company’s Nicaragua plantations – which expired on 13 November 2017. I’m reasonably sure that it’s against FSC trademark rules to display a non-valid FSC license code – especially more than eight months after the certificate has lapsed.

Creating jobs, or not paying wages?

In March 2018, Camille Rebelo, co-founder of EcoPlanet Bamboo, told the magazine Ethical Corporation that the company was creating permanent jobs for communities. “These are multi-generational projects … In Nicaragua that [means it is creating jobs for] 90-120 years if managed correctly,” she said.

But also in March 2018, the Nicaraguan newspaper La Prensareported that about 86 workers were protesting in the streets of El Rama in Nicaragua, demanding that EcoPlanet Bamboo pay their salaries.

One worker told La Prensa that payments since April 2017 were overdue.

Rebelo told Ethical Corporation that “bamboo needs a lot of management in the first five to six years so employment is high on the field level … then onto manufacturing”. Ethical Corporation reported that, “EcoPlanet Bamboo is also piloting a closed-loop biorefinery to make moulded pulp for disposable containers to replace plastics and styrofoam.”

In April 2018, EcoPlanet Bamboo announced that a company called BAP Industries in Guatemala had signed a ten year agreement to buy the bamboo from EcoPlanet Bamboo’s Nicaragua plantations. BAP Industries, according to the press release, plans to invest US$60 million in building a bio-refinery and paper mill in Nicaragua.

But there is no sign of BAP Industries on the internet. Even the company’s website has disappeared.

EcoPlanet Bamboo “suffered a fraud”

Over a period of several months, a Facebook page called “Trabajadores Ecoplanet” posted a series of links to reports in the Nicaraguan media about EcoPlanet Bamboo.

Trabajadores Ecoplanet’s Facebook page has now disappeared. The last post was an apology to Troy Wiseman. It is still available in Spanish and English on EcoPlanet Bamboo’s Facebook page (and it’s interesting to note that EcoPlanet Bamboo posted this just two minutes after it was posted on Trabajadores Ecoplanet’s Facebook page):

The World Bamboo Congress took place in Mexico from 14-18 August 2018. Troy Wiseman was there, as a keynote speaker. EcoPlanet Bamboo was a Gold Sponsor of the World Bamboo Congress. The apology appeared on the first day of the Congress.

The apology states that EcoPlanet Bamboo “suffered a fraud that led to the closing of operations” in Nicaragua. I was intrigued by this, so I wrote to Troy Wiseman to ask what happened. REDD-Monitor looks forward to posting his response in full when it arrives.

PUBLIC APOLOGIES FOR MR. TROY WISEMAN & ECOPLANET BAMBOO

The Rama, August 14, 2018

Mr
Troy Wiseman
Ecoplanet Bamboo
President

Dear Mr. Troy Wiseman, as the former employee of the company ECOPLANET BAMBOO NICARAGUA, S.A., I want in this act to allow me to make this public and sincere apology. After having spoken with you and with your legal representation, I have realized that I have been totally misinformed and that I did not have the correct information regarding the funds that you personally and without having legal obligation, has facilitated since the month of May of this year 2018, so that workers are paid the outstanding obligations that our employer could not pay ECOPLANET BAMBOO NICARAGUA, SA

I have been informed by the company of the audit report, where it is indicated that the company suffered a fraud that led to the closing of operations and now I understand that you and ECOPLANET BAMBOO have made the best efforts to mitigate the damage to the workers, we went wrong informed, which motivated the attacks against his person and against EcoPlanet Bamboo in social networks, which in this act I express my sincere apology, and I promise not to disclose by any written means, electronic information against You and ECOPLANET BAMBOO, as well as the final closure of an account in social networks where he is the Administrator.

I take this opportunity to thank you for the funds you have provided to pay our work liabilities, and personally I am satisfied, since you or any of the other companies of the Ecoplanet Bamboo Group have no personal obligation to assume these payments generated for another employer, but I appreciate your support and all the positive things that your endeavors have generated for Nicaragua, the Rama and the families over the last ten years.

I say goodbye hoping that we can soon have your presence in Nicaragua again, we express our support and encouragement to return to work with ECOPLANET BAMBOO in new operations and ventures in Nicaragua.

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Once again Chris you have hit the nail on the head. EPB is bust and can not afford to renew its accreditations. Not only has Troy Wiseman fleeced several thousand investors associated with his various ‘save the planet’ projects but now reaches a new low by screwing local communities dependant upon him for their livelihood. Every one of his schemes has crashed – plantations in Nicaragua and Africa, EPB Bonds, Premier IOM ERF Fund. Against a growing awareness of the financial havoc and distress he has perpetrated within the industry it beggars belief that he is still invited to give key-note speeches at Bamboo seminars.

Thank you Chris for keeping this issue in the spotlight. It does appear that Troy Wiseman continues to promote himself with a total lack of transparency as to what is actually go on behind the scenes. There is complete disregard for the small investors who have enabled him to get the plantations off the ground who are now at risk of losing everything. It would be interesting to know exactly what the ‘Fraud’ and ‘Closing of Operations’ actually refers to. One crafted letter from one individual does not necessarily represent the whole

First the fiction (from Camille Rebelo) – “EPB is creating permanent jobs for communities. These are multi-generational projects. In Nicaragua that means creating jobs for 90-120 years if managed correctly”.

But here are the facts – in 2014 there were over 350 employees in Rama but then EPB turned to glyphosate instead of hand- weeding in order to slash their labour force. The indiscriminate use of this herbicide over the last four years has had a disastrous impact on bamboo growth, on economic returns and on local employment as recent events show.

The reason why the employee wrote that letter was due to Wiseman paying Nicaragua’s corrupt Gov’t and unethical lawyers to intimidate the unpaid workers telling them that if they did not erase the social media account and restrain from speaking with the press they would be put on trial, something humble field workers cannot afford.

REDDisms:

“Through the REDD+ program, we are using our natural rain forests as an important part of our mitigation efforts… Our commitment to work in partnership in addressing climate change must not founder in the face of the looming and renewed threat of global financial and economic crisis… The challenges confronting us are persistent and formidable, but we have the opportunity and the capacity to address them, and most of all, to turn challenges into opportunities.”